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The waiting time paradox: why is my bus always late? (2018)

(jakevdp.github.io)
219 points skadamat | 4 comments | 20 Aug 24 13:55 UTC | HN request time: 0.803s | source
1. laweijfmvo ◴[20 Aug 24 15:57 UTC] No.41301202[source]▶
my take away is that if you're lucky enough to live in a place that has such a bus schedule, you can just ignore the schedule and show up whenever you want and only wait 10 minutes. sounds lovely!
replies(2): >>41301776 #>>41308247 #
2. i80and ◴[20 Aug 24 17:02 UTC] No.41301776[source]▶
Tell me about it. Reliable 45 minute bus headways would be a dream where I live
replies(1): >>41302594 #
3. bluGill ◴[20 Aug 24 18:27 UTC] No.41302594[source]▶
30 minutes is the worst I will accept. I have better things to do than sit outside a locked door for an hour waiting for the person with the key to arrive. I want every 5 mintes but I will be able to deal with up to half hour. More than that and I guess I must drive.
4. was_a_dev ◴[21 Aug 24 08:52 UTC] No.41308247[source]▶
Being able to track a bus via GPS works well like this. It doens't matter if the bus is 20 minutes late, if you can check that the bus is 4 minutes away.

A bit like usnig the metro. You don't know the schedule, you just know the realative time to the next train